“Very well.” Athos turned to Baltazar and said, “You’re with me in the front. Maarika and Nasir, I want you directly behind us, so that Maarika can take down any damned that approach us with that magical sling of hers.”
Before Athos could continue speaking Athea interrupted him, “We’ve been practicing with Maarika in the use of the sling since we left Antioch. I think myself and Liana can be of some use.”
Athos stared into Athea’s hazel eyes for several moments. He noticed that the flecks of gold in her pupils were catching the rays from the rising sun, “All right, let’s see how you do. I want you and Liana to be right behind Nasir and Maarika. Keep your eyes focused on our flanks. You are to take out any damned that try to attack us from the sides. Jerry.”
“Yes, sir?” Jerry replied.
“Assign one of your men to guard Athea and Liana while they focus on crowd control on our flanks.” Athos said.
“Yes sir.” Jerry turned to a man and said, “Sharven, see that the ladies’ are protected.” He turned to make sure that Athos, Baltazar and Nasir were focused elsewhere before adding in a low voice, “We wouldn’t want those shapely arses to come to grief, now would we?”
Sharven smiled, he was missing several teeth, “No sir, we wouldn’t. It will be my utmost pleasure to keep a close eye on them.”
“See that you don’t stare too hard. We need you aware of what’s going on around us.” Jerry turned to the rest of the group and said in a louder voice, “The rest of you follow Sharven, I’ll bring up the rear.”
Athos, finishing up the conversation he was having with Baltazar and Nasir, walked over to Jerry and asked, “Everything in order Dekanos?”
Jerry gestured towards the open gate, “We’re all set, sir. Lead the way.”
Athos nodded, and began walking toward the open gate. He cautiously approached the large oaken door. The large door was ajar and sitting half open. The door loomed above him as he paused for several moments and listened. Hearing nothing but the faint rustling of the wind, he squared his shoulders and held his shield up high. He then gestured for Baltazar to join him and cover his left side. Once Baltazar was in place, the two men stepped together through the gate.
The scene inside was a horror filled chaotic mess. Months old dried blood was splashed on the walls and doors of nearby buildings. The street ahead was filled with the decayed skeletons of many an unfortunate. Their bones, exposed to the sun for months, had been picked clean by vultures and rats, and now sat in the open bleached by sunlight.
The sight, despite Athos’ growing acclimation to such scenes of horror, sent a shiver up his spine, as he slowly took it all in with his eyes. He saw nothing moving, and more importantly no damned about. Sheathing his Spatha, he held his right arm up high enough so everyone could see and gestured them to move forward.
The group made its way through the Joppa Gate without incident and began slowly moving up the road. The street was surrounded by two story structures made from the same stone as the walls. More often than not, the first floor of the structures held shops, eateries, or wine houses. All of the top floors held apartments for the shop owners to live in.
Occasionally one of these structures, contained living quarters on both the ground and top level. These buildings were often constructed using stouter materials, and had decorative features carved around the windows and door. Athos noticed that unlike other old cities he had been in, these carvings depicted landscapes, food items, and animals, but none of the old Gods.
The group made its way through the Joppa Gate without incident and began slowly moving up the road. As Gor had said, the road was a wide boulevard able to hold two carts passing each other upon it with room to spare. As they reached the first crossroads, Athos held up his right hand high in the air and made a fist, the signal to stop. Athos and Baltazar peered up and down the narrow road that cut across the east-west running road that they were using on a roughly north south axis.
They were able to see several hundred feet down the narrow expanse, before it turned sharply out of view. The two men couldn’t see anything moving upon the crossroad. Above it, a homespun brown mesh of sorts was strung across the top of the street shielding it from the sun, and casting the road into shadows.
“Looks like a maze back there.” Baltazar said.
“You can tell this city wasn’t originally built by Romans, like many of the cities built in this part of the world, it’s a mess of crisscrossing roads once you get off of this main road that goes to the center of the city.” Nasir replied.
Like the main road they stood upon, this road also had its fair share of corpses lying upon it. That’s where the similarity ended. These corpses, unlike the ones exposed to the direct sunlight on the main road, still contained bits of skin, and pieces of flesh. As they stood and stared in the intersection, the faint breeze carried a hint of the putrid smell wafting into the intersection from this narrow avenue.
Athos, trying not to smell the foul odor, took a deep breath, raised his right arm high into the air, and gestured using his fingers three times to the rest of the group behind him. The signal to move forward. As they started moving, Athos heard what sounded like a cooking pot fall off of a table in the residence to his immediate right. He froze and listened.
A shrill keening issued forth from the building. A moment later, a figure leapt through the open ground level window. What once must have been an old lady turned and made eye contact with Athos. She had stringy gray hair that was matted in the blood. Whether from her victims, or herself it was hard to say. She had no obvious wounds showing through the tattered dull gray dress she wore. Her skin, which was likely already wrinkled in life, seemed dried out and parchment like.
For a moment she paused and seemingly grinned at Athos before growling and lunging forward. Before she could take her first step, the side of her head jerked to her right as a lead bullet flung from Maarika’s sling slammed into her skull, crushed bone, and came to rest inside her brain. The old lady immediately flopped to the ground in a heap.
As Athos opened his mouth to thank Maarika, dozens of the damned erupted from the surrounding buildings. Some, like the old lady, stormed through open first story windows. Others, heedless of the danger to themselves, poured out of the second story windows. Many of these smashed their legs upon impact with the cobbled street below. Driven mad by their lust for living flesh, and despite the loss of their legs, they would pull themselves toward Athos and his party with their arms.
Yet more of the damned, trapped within their residences, began banging on shutters and doors. Baltazar grimaced at the noise this was creating and said, “They’ll bring the whole damned city down upon us.”
Athos nodded in agreement, “Aye.”
An instant later the keening horde was upon them. Beset by the damned from all sides, Athea and Liana moved up beside Maarika as Nasir defended the slingers right flank, while Gor dropped back to defend their left flank. Sharven moved up and another member of Jerry’s team Martun fought back to back with him, using ax and shield.
In the front line, Athos and Baltazar, working together, began dispatching the damned. The two men, well accustomed to each other’s fighting style, moved in concert, as they cut through the damned like human buzz saws.
The three ladies, standing in the middle of their two protectors, used their slings to bring down damned after damned, before the putrid beasts could overwhelm the lines. Occasionally, Nasir and Sharven would raise their shields to block the advance of an oncoming damned that survived the onslaught of lead. If that damned wasn’t then instantly dispatched by one of the slingers, they would use their ax to end the threat.
The rest of Jerry’s Kontoubernion closed ranks with the front of the formation and stood back to back as the damned surrounded them. The group, skilled fighters all, fought well for several minutes cutting the damned to pieces without losing a single Skutatoi. Soon however, they faced the same reoccurring problem. This issue, was created by any succ
essful static defense of the ground they held, when beset by a horde, the bodies of the slain.
Athos, in the breaths between kills said, “We’ve got to start moving forward, or they will use the bodies as spring boards to leap upon us.”
Baltazar stole a glance behind them, then killed a damned with a sold ax stroke to its forehead. As the body collapsed to the growing pile on the ground in a spray of purple blood he said, “Aye, they’re having the same issue down the line, except around the ladies.”
Athos raised his shield to deflect the charge of a large, obese female. The heavy impact from her immense weight numbed his left arm as he met the gaze of her lifeless eyes. She snarled in frustration at being blocked from her meal at the last moment, before Athos brought his ax down upon her head, ending her gluttonous existence forever.
The undead horror immediately behind her lunged atop her corpse to set up a leap overtop Athos. Seeing the nefarious creature’s intent, Athos removed the danger by ending his second life with an ax stroke to the side of the head. This won him a moment’s respite and he turned to Nasir and said, “Nasir, we need to start advancing or the line will be broken by leaping damned using the corpses of their fallen as spring boards.”
“I’ll pass the word.” Nasir replied.
Before Athos could acknowledge Nasir’s reply, he had to bring his shield up to block another damned to his front. Just as he feared the damned was trying to use the growing pile of corpses in front of him as a spring board. At the same time, he used his ax to end the unholy existence of a living corpse attacking from his right side. He stole a glance at Baltazar and shouted, “Ready?” As he brought his ax down upon the head of the damned man pounding on his shield.
Baltazar used his own ax to dispatch two of the damned threatening him in as many seconds before replying, “Aye, I think we’ve worn out our welcome here.”
In between kills, Athos turned and said, “Nasir, pass the command to move forward with the line. Tell them to be especially careful of their footing. If anyone trips, the line will be broken.”
Nasir gave Athos a brief nod as he was forced to turn and bring up his shield to block an advancing damned. Athos and Baltazar fought for a few seconds more before the pair overheard Nasir passing the message to the Skutatoi directly behind him.
Athos, was forced down upon one knee by an immense damned that stood atop the corpse of the obese female. The barrel-chested man, used his bulging arms to pound on Athos’ shield. The man must have been a blacksmith, or a wrestler while he drew breath. Athos, desperate to end the pounding on his shield, brought his ax up into the chin of the man with all of the strength he could muster. The blade of the ax, sharpened to perfection, easily sliced through skin and bone until the ax head buried itself in the soft fleshy mass of his brain.
Now slain, the large man fell to the ground, and nearly ripped the ax handle from Athos’ hand. Through sheer force of will he was able to hold onto the wooden shaft, made slippery by his own sweat and the putrid purple blood, of the slain damned. Gaining a moment’s respite. he took a step forward.
Baltazar quickly followed suit, and then the rest of the line one by one took a step forward. As they slowly fought their way up the boulevard in this manner, the damned kept coming. Several minutes turned into ten, and ten turned into a half an hour.
Baltazar, in-between kills, turned to Athos and asked, “How many more do you think there are?”
“I don’t know. For all we know, we could be drawing every damned in the city down upon us between the noise from the fighting and the incessant banging from those trapped behind locked door.” Athos replied.
Baltazar sighed deeply and said, “That’s what I was afraid of.”
The two men paused their conversation for several moments as they were forced to dispatch several attackers, and then take another step forward. Before either had the opportunity to speak, Nasir said, “We have a new problem. The ladies are starting to run out of ammunition.”
“Great, their sling fire is the only thing that is keeping us from getting totally crushed by the weight of the damned.” Baltazar said.
“We’ve got to do something to change the situation or we are going to die here.” Nasir said.
“Can’t they pick up some stones off the road and use them?” Baltazar asked.
Athos’ mind race as he looked about in-between kills, desperate to find a solution. After taking the next step forward he spotted a possibility. Just ahead a townhouse whose shutters and doors stood, open, but intact, “Maybe we could move into that open building up ahead, the one with the open door and shutters.”
Baltazar, nearly overwhelmed by a group of three damned that attacked in concert, barely had time to glance ahead at the building that Athos spoke of before saying, “Then what?”
“We close and bar the shutters and doors. Then hopefully we can break contact with these buggers, by sneaking out the back door.” Athos said. He brought his shield up to block a man dressed in the well to do colorful silken garb typically worn by rich merchants, or nobility. The man hissed in frustration at being denied his meal. Athos brought his ax down through the man’s hat and into his skull before adding, “Gor, is there a street behind these buildings that we could use?”
“Yes, there is a narrow alley way that runs parallel with the main road.” Gor replied.
“That sounds perfect.” Athos replied.
Before he could continue, he was interrupted by a group of small children that tried to slip under his shield and bite his legs. Seeing the danger, he smashed his shield into the group knocking them down. He dispatched the first two with a single stroke of his ax, as they attempted to scramble back to their feet.
Baltazar, having a moment of respite, assisted Athos by taking out the third child, a little girl, who was perhaps six years of age, when she was bitten. Athos, seeing another attacker bearing down on his right side, through the corner of his eye, kicked the fourth child in the group. He was a boy of perhaps nine years of age, dressed in a thread bare homespun tunic, with faded cotton pants, in the face. This bought him the precious moment he needed to dispatch the damned woman, threatening his right side with a swift ax stroke to her forehead.
Returning to the group of children, he raised his ax to bring it down on the head of the last child in the group, when he was tackled from behind. He felt a large figure weighing on his back that pushed him forward to the ground. As he dropped his ax and instinctively thrust his hands forward to catch himself before his face hit the cobblestones of the street surface, his nose registered the presence of cold fetid breath on his neck. Please God, may my helm be strapped securely into place.
He heard the sound of teeth banging on the thin strip of metal that separated the skin of his neck from hungry teeth. As he looked up to locate his ax, his eyes met that of a little girl’s. Her dull and lifeless milky white orbs stared back at him as she scrambled over the corpses of the other children on all fours toward him. Athos saw that his ax lay just beyond reach behind the oncoming toddler’s right leg. With his arms trapped beneath him, thanks to the weight of the damned on his back, and no recourse to deal with the hungry teeth just a few inches away from his face, he prayed, “God please keep Athea safe.”
As the girl’s lips parted into a wicked grin as she anticipated a meal that was a hair’s breath away, her head was cleaved in half by Baltazar’s ax, “Keep her safe yourself, my friend.”
Simultaneously, the weight on his back went limp, as Gor’s ax smashed into the base of the damned’s skull atop Athos’ back. A moment later he felt arms haul him onto his feet from behind. Athos uttered a, “Thanks.” Then looked about for his ax. Not seeing it amongst the corpses of children at his feet, and with yet another damned woman bearing down on him, he drew his Spatha. As the woman leapt through the air toward him, he raised his shield to block her, and brought his blade swiftly down upon her head.
Baltazar, still at Athos’ left side, dropped three damned just in front of them
in as many seconds. This created a momentary gap, and the two men moved forward three precious steps. As they did so, Athos scooped up his ax. The open doorway of the townhouse they wished to reach now stood just to their right. Baltazar, in-between kills, turned his head in Athos’ direction and asked, “We’ve made it, how are we going to get everyone inside?”
“We’re moving another step forward to cover the door, while, Nasir heads inside to make sure it’s clear, followed by the ladies, and Gor. Sharven, will cover the left flank so we don’t lose the doorway.” Athos replied.
“Then what?” Baltazar asked.
A damned catapulted himself toward Athos, he brought his shield up just in time to block the man’s airborne body. The jolt from the impact caused him to take a step back as the damned slid to the ground. Before the rotting man had a chance to regain his feet, Athos brought his Spatha down on his head in a mighty blow splitting his skull and sending, blood, bone, and brain matter flying in all directions.
Athos took a step forward to bring himself even with Baltazar and replied, “I haven’t thought that far ahead. One step at a time.”
Despite the horror of the carnage going on around them, Baltazar’s face broke into a smile as he said, “Touchy, touchy. You’re the Kentarches, I expect you to have a detailed plan for every step of the way to the Cross.”
Athos quickly slew his next opponent, a middle-aged wet nurse whose profession in life, was given away by her swollen, uncovered breasts. Grinning he replied, “I suggest you complain to my Droungarios then, since I’m not meeting your expectations as a commanding officer.”
Baltazar, brought his shield up to block a pair of arms that reached for him to his left. Simultaneously he brought his ax down onto the head of a teenage boy, whose clothing was tattered beyond recognition and barely concealed his modesty. He then spun around and cleaved the skull of the bearded man that was reaching for him from the left over his shield before saying, “I’ll talk to Hovig just as soon as we get back.” He added under his breath, “Assuming we get back.”
Byzantium Infected Box Set Page 91
